Regardless of which direction health care reform takes in the coming years, its impact on rural populations must be closely monitored says L. Gary Hart, director of the Center of Rural Health (CRH) at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

â€œWe need to stay in a position that prevents adverse things from happening that affect rural providers and rural people, or at least be able to figure out whatâ€™s going wrong before it goes too wrong,â€Â explains Hart, who became the centerâ€™s director last August.Â He succeeded Mary Wakefield, who left in 2009 to serve as administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration in Washington, D.C.